Judge's Decision That Attorney Was Ineffective Is Unusual; Bad Lawyering Is Rarely Enough for a New Trial

Here are some things that lawyers can do without being deemed incompetent enough to justify a new trial: fail to pursue leads, neglect evidence and even fall asleep in court.

That is why the legal community is abuzz over a rare decision Wednesday by a Connecticut judge to grant Kennedy relative Michael Skakel a new trial in a notorious murder case on the grounds that his first lawyer's ineffectiveness doomed his defense.